I’m a huge fan of Terry Moore and his epic creation Strangers in Paradise (SiP). His deftly layered saga of Francine, Katchoo, and David is a shining example of comics done right: amazing characters and a huge arc of a plot that never loses sight of those characters. As sad as I was to see SiP come to an end, I was excited to see what would come next, and happy to be along for the ride.

Moore’s latest effort is a sci-fi comic called Echo. Issue #1 hit the stands on March 5 and begins the story of photographer Julie Martin. While taking pictures in the desert near her home, she witnesses the fallout of a test of a prototype rocket suit called the Beta Suit.

Round bits of metal fall from the sky and impact Julie and her Jeep, sticking wherever they land. She races home, where we find out that she’s avoiding signing her divorce papers and she’s running out of money. She finds a larger piece that looks like it was made out of the same material that she’s dotted with, and when she holds it up to herself, it attaches.

All of the small dots join with the larger piece, leaving Julie covered in a metallic bra that she can’t remove. Issue #2 takes up immediately where the first one left off, and I don’t think I’m giving too much away if I say trouble ensues.

A lot of this comic is vintage Moore: a female protagonist with some personal issues gets caught up in a much larger story and has to deal with the fallout. But it’s new, too.

Julie Martin isn’t Francine or Katchoo; she comes from a different background and has different issues to deal with. And while SiP could occasionally bust out into full on spy thriller mode, it was essentially the story of Francine and Katchoo: their day-to-day story was the heart of the piece, not the theatrics around them.

Echo is a science fiction comic, and while I’m sure we’ll spend a lot of time with Julie and her daily life, I suspect that the bigger outside story will have more prominence.

If you’ve never read SiP before but tales of rocket suits and shadowy scientific organizations sound like fun, I think you’ll enjoy Moore’s take on the genre.

If you’re a SiP fan, then this is really a no-brainer: you already like Moore’s writing; you already know the kinds of stories he’s capable of telling. What are you waiting for? Get thee to your local comic book shop, and right soon!